Nabu Casa Home Assistant Green and the Raspberry Pi 5 are the two most discussed hardware choices for running Home Assistant in 2026. Both can run Home Assistant OS, but they target different users with different priorities.
Home Assistant Green
The Home Assistant Green is purpose-built by Nabu Casa specifically to run Home Assistant OS. It is the official appliance approach to running Home Assistant.
Hardware Specs
- Rockchip RK3566 processor (quad-core ARM Cortex-A55)
- 4GB RAM (LPDDR4)
- 32GB eMMC internal storage
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet
- Price: ~$99
What is Great About It
Zero setup: Plug it in and it boots directly into Home Assistant OS in under 2 minutes. No flashing, no configuration — just plug in an Ethernet cable and go to homeassistant.local:8123.
Officially supported: Nabu Casa develops and tests Home Assistant OS specifically for this hardware.
Purpose-built design: The Green runs quietly and efficiently 24/7 without active cooling.
Limitations
The RK3566 processor is slower than the Raspberry Pi 5 BCM2712. For most Home Assistant use cases this does not matter — but if you want to run Frigate NVR with AI detection on the same device, the Green will struggle with more than 2–3 cameras. The 32GB eMMC is not expandable internally.
Raspberry Pi 5
Hardware Specs (4GB Model)
- Broadcom BCM2712 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A76 @ 2.4GHz)
- 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4X RAM
- MicroSD + PCIe interface (for NVMe SSD via HAT)
- Price: ~$60 (4GB) + $15 case + $15 power supply + $30 NVMe HAT = ~$120
What is Great About It
Performance: The Cortex-A76 cores in the Pi 5 are roughly 2–3x faster than the Cortex-A55 in the Green. This matters if you run Frigate, use advanced templating, or plan to grow your Home Assistant installation.
NVMe storage: With the official NVMe HAT, the Pi 5 can boot from an NVMe SSD — dramatically faster and more reliable than eMMC or SD card storage.
Flexibility: The Pi 5 can run other software alongside Home Assistant if your needs change.
Limitations
Requires more setup than the Green — flashing an SD card or SSD, initial configuration. Higher power consumption (~5–8W vs ~3–5W for the Green).
The Bottom Line
Choose the Home Assistant Green if: You want the simplest possible setup, you are not planning to run Frigate on the same device, and you value the plug-and-play experience.
Choose the Raspberry Pi 5 if: You want maximum performance for growth, you plan to run Frigate NVR on the same device, or you want NVMe storage for long-term reliability.
For most users who are already comfortable with technology: the Pi 5 with NVMe offers better value and more headroom for a similar price.